In 1942 President FDR – husband to social justice hero Eleanor Roosevelt, signed an executive order that put thousands of law-abiding Japanese American citizens in prison camps. There was little outcry. In the 1970s, in collaboration with doctors, our government forced African American men to endure late stage syphilis. Few with knowledge of this objected. U.S. history begins with violently removing indigenous inhabitants from their ancestral lands. Shockingly, in the 1800s, some abolitionists opposed women voting. Today some who support civil rights for people of color oppose marriage equality for LGBTQ identifying individuals. The book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, describes a large American hospital in the 1950s injecting cancer cells into hundreds of patients without their knowledge or consent. Three Jewish doctors were the only ones to object. But their views were marginalized as being “overly sensitive because of the Holocaust." History is full of similar examples. Perhaps that is why Albert Einstein said, “The world is a dangerous place not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”

The Holocaust is one of the most egregious examples of human’s capacity to look away and disregard injustice. After hearing about it, many wanted to know, “How did so many seemingly average people allow it to happen? The classic experiment by Stanley Milgram sought to answer this. His data showed that under certain conditions, half of us will go along with things we know harm others. Milgram stated, "Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process." Some cultures (and by implication their cultural practices) appear to be less vulnerable to this. So it’s worth asking, what practices might make us less likely to ignore injustice threatening someone else?

I learned about Phenylketonuria in my prenatal class, when I was pregnant. PKU is a genetic disease in which the gene that codes for a certain protein (an enzyme) that enables one to break down the amino acid, phenylalanine is defective. As a result, this amino acid accumulates and becomes toxic to the brain. Left untreated it can quickly result in severe and permanent mental disability. Although the incidence of PKU is only one in ten thousand births, all fifty states have laws requiring newborns to be tested for this genetic disease. That is because the effects of untreated PKU are devastating but completely preventable with treatment. Detection is simple -- they prick the heal of the newborn, and get a small blood sample. If the blood has high levels of phenylalanine this is considered positive for PKU. The treatment then is a strict, low protein diet for the rest of one's life.

Unfortunately the timing of when this test is done most of the time, increases the risk of a false negative -- meaning there is the possibility of NOT identifying a baby with PKU. Babies born to vegan mothers may even be at INCREASED risk of being falsely told their baby does not have PKU, because the vegan diet...

Margaret Kramar just shared with me a letter that she sent to Paul Wesslund of Kansas Country Living Magazine. As I doubted that the magazine will print Margaret's excellent letter, I wanted to do my part to amplify her important sentiments. So here it is:

Looking for a warm, sweet, rich comforting beverage to enjoy that won't ruin your healthy diet? This hot carob-almond drink is a recipe that I created when my children were young. I was looking for an alternative to hot chocolate, that would be free of caffeine, and saturated fat, and not have too many added sugars. Because this recipe uses carob, which is naturally sweet instead of bitter like cocoa, only 1 TBS of maple syrup and 20 drops of stevia extract are sufficient to sweeten two generous mugs. The combination of chia seeds and guar gum, makes this rich and thick without loading up on calories, fat nor processed starches. An added bonus -- carob is less expensive to buy than cocoa -- ESPECIALLY cocoa that is free of the tarnish of child slave labor.

My daughter Sarina Farb wrote this guest post while still a student at Grinnell College. She has since graduated with degrees in biochemistry and policy studies and plans to begin blogging at:BornVegan.Org​------------------------------------------------------

Recently, an Italian bill proposed jail time for parents irresponsibly imposing a vegan diet on their children. It has created a lot of buzz and discussion over whether vegan parents should be allowed to “force their values” on their children. A common theme in articles and commentary I have read is that regardless of a parent’s values, they shouldn’t “force” their radical choices on their children,

​When I brought my potato rolls to a gathering and she didn't try them because she was avoiding nightshades -- that family of plants that includes tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, and eggplant, she asked me, "Do you suppose this recipe would work if you substituted sweet potatoes?" Her question prompted me to experiment, and my family has been thrilled with the results. I like these even better than my potato rolls!

I make these without any salt, since learning more about how salt increases our risk of osteoporosis, high blood pressure, and autoimmune disease. But if a no-salt bread stick would

Modern medicine has a long history of promoting procedures that make money for doctors, hospitals and large corporations before there is good science showing that they really are beneficial for patients, and/or that the benefits outweigh the risks. A few past examples of this are:

Routine tonsillectomies

Treating prostate cancer in older men who have no symptoms

Aggressive treatment of DCIS in women

Most conventional treatment of Coronary Artery Disease

A new study, just published in the Lancet gives us more evidence for #4. This Nov 2, 2017 study examined a procedure, inserting stents to relieve stable angina, that has been a standard of care for coronary patients, and found little benefit. Stents are widely done, very expensive, and can

Vitamin A Deficiency -- Mowing Down Vegans?

I did it again. As I have been known to do on occasion, I went over to the dark side. That is I followed some links that led me to that part of the blogosphere, that thinks being vegan is not safe, and that the only people who are vegan long term, must be cheating, otherwise they would die.

This time my journey started because I just had to know for myself if those discussing a particular issue on-line (and I have now completely forgotten what it was) were cherry picking studies or taking lines from research papers out of context to shore up their perspective -- the plant-based proponents or the die-hard omnivores, so down the rabbit hole I went. Although I certainly don't have time to deeply pursue every point-of-disagreement between bloggers with differing nutritional perspectives, sometimes when the disagreement is over specific, "facts." I just have to know for myself, who is really misrepresenting the science.

It was a recent such foray that led me to yet another alarmist post declaring that vegan diets are

Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free, Oil-Free Cranberry Muffin Recipe

Walking through the produce isle recently I saw my first bag of fresh cranberries for this season, and it got me to reworking an old favorite recipe of mine -- cranberry muffins. These are a crowd pleaser and fairly simple to make. There is no added salt in these, but as you probably know, both baking powder and baking soda do contain significant amounts of sodium. When I make these for people on low-sodium diets, I have been omitting the baking soda -- (and using just the two teaspoons of baking powder) This makes them a bit denser, but still really good. This is a great recipe to use up apples that have gotten soft or a bit past their prime -- you could also substitute apple sauce for the blended apples. This recipe makes 24 muffins.

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line two trays of muffin cups with parchment paper liners.

2) Measure out the first 6 dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix well with a wire whisk.

3) wash and slice 3-4 apples. Place slices into powerful blender and pulse until they look like apple sauce -- adding more slices until you have about 1 1/2 cups.

4) Add the stevia to the blended apples and blend until well incorporated.

5) Roughly chop the dates on a cutting board and press the pieces into a measuring cup tightly until you have 1 cup. Add these to the blender and blend on high.

6) Add the extracts and bananas and blend well one last time.

7) Place the fresh cranberries into a bowl and pick over them to remove any that are soft, then rinse the remaining with water and drain through a strainer -- repeat this a few times.

8) Pour the blender mixture into the bowl of flour and mix with a spatula to just barely incorporate, DO NOT OVER MIX. Scrape out as much as you can from the blender with the spatual and then pour the 1 cup of water into the dirty blender and blend on high to get remaining mixture into the water. Then add the washed drained cranberries to this water and pulse very carefully a few times -- just to break up the cranberries a little bit, but don't over blend -- you want some nice chunks of berry.

9) Pour the cranberries and liquid into the batter and mix well enough that no dry flour is evident, but don't over mix, then quickly spoon the mixture into 24 muffin cups dividing it evenly between all the cups -- they will be nearly full. Place into preheated oven and bake for 40-45 minutes just until the tops start to brown. Remove from oven and remove muffins from tray to cool.

Due to the high fruit content, once cooled, these should be stored covered in the refrigerator, where they will keep well for at least a week. We always slice them in half horizontally and reheat them in the toaster oven before eating them -- they are much better that way.

My family waits all year long -- filled with anticipation for that part of the gardening season when there is an abundance of fresh ripe home-grown tomatoes and cucumbers just so that we can make Israeli Salad. The combination of these fruits with green olives, onions, sweet peppers, lemon juice and herbs is quite extraordinary -- you just can't imagine how good this is until you taste it. No matter how large of a bowl of this I make, my family continues to have seconds, thirds and more until every last bit is gone.

Normally I do not measure any of the ingredients -- so don't feel that you need to either -- just make the cucumbers and the tomatoes the major ingredients, and don't overdo the onions. Taste it frequently as you mix in the herbs, lemon juice and olives to get the taste just the way you like it. But here are some measurements -- just in case you'd like to follow a recipe.

1) Place the tomatoes, cucumbers peppers, onions, and scallions into a large bowl and mix well. Drizzle with the lemon juice, sprinkle with onion powder and thyme and mix well with a large spoon.

2) Place the jar of olives into a blender -- with all the liquid too and pulse it just a few times to barely chop them up. Alternatively, you could pour the olives through a strainer -- saving the liquid and then place the olives on a cutting board and chop them with a knife.

2) Add all of the olives and the juice that they were in to the bowl and mix well. Mix again right before serving.

After 10 years of making my own homemade gluten-free vegan bread, (sourdough buckwheat recipe is here and my potato roll recipe is here.) because I couldn't find a single store -bought bread that met my standards AND tasted good...I am happy to report that finally, I have found a company,The Little Northern Bakehouse, that is making delicious bread, hot dog buns and burger buns.

Not only is their whole product line gluten free and vegan, but everything is Non-GMO product certified. (GMO's are a deal breaker for me -- here's why.) The bread is as light and fluffy as any bread I have ever had, it toasts up really nicely and the taste is delicious.

​The store locator can help you find a store where you can buy this product. I am really impressed with this bread -- not only is the ingredient list fairly simple but there is very little added oil. However, the store I've been buying it at, is frequently out, so when they do have it, I buy several loaves -- they freeze really well.

What a wonderful experience my daughter and I had in Iowa last Sunday! Just a mere 3 hour drive from Kansas City, we had the pleasure of participating in a really well put-together Vegfest where authentic veganism was embraced.​In considering whether it would be worth the drive to Des Moines to attend this event, we first looked to see who the event's sponsors would be. When we saw that HSUS was NOT a sponsor, we made the decision to attend. We had seen how HSUS sponsorship of Kansas City's first vegfest had totally co-opted that event's messaging.In contrast to what happened at the KC Vegfest (where that event's speakers, supposedly representing veganism, actually told the audience that they saw little problem with meat-eating and killing animals as long as the animals were raised on small farms,) Iowa Vegfest speakers were very clear: there is no way to enslave and kill other beings and have it be "humane."

​The Iowa Vegfest was held at Windsor Heights Community Center in West Des Moines -- just a few minutes drive from the interstate, making it very easy to get to. As this was their first vegfest, and in the farm-belt, I was expecting a small, cozy event. So I was pleasantly surprised to arrive and find no parking spaces in the parking lot and cars lining the streets more than a block away. Then I saw some people sporting, "vegan" shirts walking towards the event. As I approached the building, there were many others arriving too (below left.) A table welcomed attendees who were given a goodie bag and invited to either go inside where there were vendors or outside to the park where the speakers and other activities would be. I first went inside, and as I marveled at the great attendance, noticed this beautiful little girl (below right) wearing a shirt, that said "Wow" on it. My sentiments exactly!

The Inside area had a number of tables representing a variety of non-profits, and food vendors. I met the founders of, "Iowa Farm Sanctuary" (no connection to Farm Santuary in NY) and picked up a few of their beautiful post cards. I got to sample some avocado-based ice-cream -- and spoke for a bit with the couple who started the business. (Shown below sampling their three flavors.) The Mint Chocolate Chip was my favorite. This product would be an especially welcome treat for those wishing to avoid grains and soy.

I also enjoyed tastes of some delicious vegan chocolate bars that were also fair trade, and non-GMO certified. There were kale chips, vegan candies, protein powders and personal care items for sampling too. For lunch my daughter and I ordered a really delicious falafel waffle, with yummy hummus and a tossed salad with an incredible creamy dressing -- all for just just five dollars from the much renowned Trumpet Blossom Cafe (FYI -- Trumpet Blossom is worth driving out of your way so you can go through Iowa City where their restaurant is, in order to dine there!)

All of that however was INSIDE -- Outside there was much more....

Ben Spellman of Good Vibes Yoga taught a free yoga class, Cadry Nelson of Cadry's Kitchen gave a presentation, and nearby there was a nice little set up for children to have some fun (see below.)

​

Although much of my time was spent talking with many wonderful people, I did manage to take a break from schmoozing long enough to actually hear two speakers: First I heard Melanie Jacobs from Rooster Redemption speak about her work running a "micro sanctuary," and how her own addiction recovery connects to her work on behalf on roosters. She gave the audience much to think about while sharing her own story of healing and growth after struggling with substance abuse. She also spoke about the micro sanctuary movement that she is part of and I picked up a brochure about it from her that explained the six principles (be sure to click on that link to see what they are!) it's a fantastic program!​

​Another interesting part of the event, was meeting a medical doctor who came there with his documentary crew and was interviewing people for a new documentary he is making, after his own health was saved by eliminating meat, dairy and eggs.​

But perhaps the highlight for me was hearing Mic the vegan speak and also getting to chat informally with him and his partner. Mic is a very popular "Vegan Science You Tuber" who makes a series of short pithy videos addressing specific subjects by referencing the published scientific literature and helping us to make sense of the sometimes confusing claims about what the data actually supports.

Check him out -- In This 13 minute video, Mic debunks claims by others who have claimed they are debunking, the popular documentary, What the Health.

Special thanks to all the volunteers who made this event so terrific, and especially to Amira Khatib. It was a joy and a privilege for me to meet Amira, the dynamo behind the Iowa Vegfest, and to meet her mother -- a kindred spirit/mother in Iowa.

Who knew -- when I was a new mother raising my vegan children in Kansas in the 1990's and wishing there were more vegan families in the midwest, just one state away -- Amira's mother was doing the same thing!

When our family first made the switch to gluten-free, there was not a single gluten free vegan bread I could find that was pleasant to eat. So I set about trying to come up with something that was made from whole grains, and had no added sugar or oil. I found that a combination of Buckwheat flour (no relation to wheat) garbanzo bean flour, and flax seeds was my ticket to success. I used red grape skins (you just buy grapes, wash them gently and then carefully peel 2-3 of them) to create a sourdough starter and wallah -- SUCCESS. The first time you make this, you will have to plan ahead. It takes a couple of days to make the starter. But after that, as long as you "feed" the starter (by stirring in a tsp of buckwheat flour and a teaspoon of water every 2-3 days) it will last indefinitely in the refrigerator.

First make your starter...

Gently rinse the grapes with water. (Be careful that you don't wash the naturally occurring yeasts off of them.) Then peel the skins and set aside. (You can eat the inside.)

Place the 1/4 cup of flour and 1/4 cup of water into a small bowl and mix well, breaking up all lumps.

Add the grape skins to the flour and water mixture and mix a little more.

Cover the bowl with a cloth napkin and set on the counter, out of sun for two days. Every 4-8 hours (or when you think about it) -- stir in a tsp more of the flour and a tsp more of the water.

After two days, stir in a 1/4 cup more of water, stir well -- and then pour the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer to remove the grape skins, (discard them) and then add another 1/4 cup of buckwheat flour to the mixture. Now you have your starter. You can either proceed to make bread, or store it in a small jar labeled, "Starter" your refrigerator until you are ready to use it.​​

Mix 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of water and add your entire jar of starter (about ¼ cup). Cover bowl with wet cloth. Let sit about 8-12 hours to get the starter activated.

When bubbly, with rich “sour” smell, remove about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the starter. (refill the same amount back into your starter jar) and put it back into the refrigerator for use next time. The rest of this starter will be used in step 5 below.

Place the remaining buckwheat flour, garbanzo flour, and baking soda in a large bowl and mix well with a wire whisk.

Place 5 ¾ cups water and the flax seeds in blender and blend until thick and creamy. Add the salt and xanthan gum and blend well.

Pour the wet into the dry, add the starter and mix well a hand held electric beater makes this easier, but you can do it by hand too. This will be more of a thick batter, then a dough.

Cut 3 pieces of parchment paper about 12 x 14 inches and set each in a loaf pan. Spoon the sourdough into the pan.

Set undisturbed for 3-8 hours (depends on temperature) – until it increases in size, nearly overflowing pan. The time will be less if you can keep temperature at about 100 degrees. (I warm my oven by turning it on for 1 minute and then turning it off -- THEN I put the loaves in on a lower rack and place a wet cloth napkin on the rack just above them to create high humidity.

Bake it in a preheated oven at 360 degrees for about 60 minutes. Remove from oven and remove from parchment paper and let cool. After it cools, store in the refrigerator. If you want very thin slices – wait until it is completely cool to cut it.

Additionally we have found after storing it in the refrigerator, it tastes MUCH better if we pop the slices in the toaster oven before serving them. Interestingly -- even when toasting -- the slices don't really brown up much -- but they will got hot and fragrant and really yummy. If you really want to impress people (and fat is not an issue) -- serve it with a nice pesto or garlic --olive oil spread (that recipe is in my book too.)

The Kansas governor, Kansas Department of Agriculture and elected officials in the City of Tonganoxie and County of Leavenworth have disregarded their constituent’s wishes to not live near animal factories, so it is important that citizens of Kansas see and address the much larger picture of what is going on here. People also need to be aware -- satellite "grow-out" houses (the CAFO's) will be scattered throughout northeastern Kansas to supply the Tonganoxie slaughter-processing plant, whether it is situated in Tonagnoxie, or in some other Kansas locale. If Tyson succeeds in getting their plant in -- ANYWHERE in Kansas -- we are all still at risk of having these other, "chicken factories" in our back yards which will have profound, long-lasting negative impacts on our water cleanliness and scarcity, air, soil and livability of much of our state -- and will even the harm our future economic opportunities. Look for example at what has happened to the American rice farmers as a result of Tyson (and other chicken producing companies) feeding arsenic-laced chicken feed to chickens for years. The arsenic passed into the chicken feces, got spread on farm fields, and now almost all domestically produced rice has such high levels of arsenic in it, that more educated American consumers are purchasing only rice grown outside the US. If our public officials TRULY want to support America's economic well-being, they need to embrace a broader lens -- rather than the one they allowed themselves to be exclusively exposed to all these months that they were in secret meetings with Tyson!

While nobody wants an animal factory in their back yard, it is critical that we band together and work to make sure that these things are “Not in ANYBODY’S Back yard. Also, there is a much bigger story to what is happening that I’d like to share with you.

I feel a particular solidarity with our neighbors in Tonganoxie and Leavenworth County because a few years ago, my rural residential neighborhood, outside of Lawrence City limits to the northwest, fought a similar threat. A local developer petitioned the city of Lawrence to island annex a 160 acres that was outside of the zone of growth as outlined in Douglas County’s Horizon 2020 planning document, and to rezone it to heavy industrial. This parcel was surrounded on all sides by rural residentially zoned properties, where families like ours, had built their dream homes on small acreages.Our community was unanimous in not wanting to live near industrially zoned property, even though no one would tell us what the actual use might be, but I was particularly concerned that an animal factory might be built on that land. For months we attended city, county and planning commission meetings – but found little support from officials, who had already decided that economic growth mattered more than the fact that we had all made huge investments, building much loved homes in an area the city had publicly identified as NOT being the direction it would grow. The developer, and elected officials insisted the rezoning was not being done for a particular entity and wouldn’t divulge what the property would be used for. I now believe this was a calculated attempt to prevent us from garnering wider community support which would have been enormous if they had disclosed that a chicken plant was the planned use. (Just take a look at how quickly and effectively the larger community organized once it was disclosed that Tyson would be in Tonganoxie.) To make matters worse, citizens of Lawrence (who unlike us, actually had voting power over these officials) didn’t care about what was happening – not only did they not perceive this as impacting their neighborhood – but since an entity like Tyson had not been identified, they could not see the danger. We were left to fight this all by ourselves. We eventually prevailed in court because the proposed use of the property had not been spelled out as required by law. So the annexation and rezoning were overturned, and our neighborhood was saved. I know what it was like to feel little support from the surrounding community -- that is why I first decided to support Tonganoxie. But I now have even more reasons.Since my own neighborhood's battle, several more events have suggested to me that something insidious is happening, impacting a much larger area and that many recent events are connected: A new interchange was added to I-70, right near Tonganoxie which just preceded the now revealed secret negotiations between city and county officials and Tyson. That interchange is critical to Tyson’s plans. Now think about this -- after we reversed the island annexation and rezoning of the land by us, KDOT publicly disclosed new plans to move the Lecompton I-70 interchange (which was right by this land) a few miles west (and taxpayers would have a big bill!) Although my engaged and vigilant neighbors objected to and probably derailed these plans, this suggests to me that someone wants that interchange for their plans and had the highway interchange been moved, neighbors to our west would find themselves fighting rezoning of their rural neighborhood to heavy industrial.Could Tyson Foods have something to do with all of these things? Here is why I think they might. Demand for processed chicken has been increasing in Kansas, and we have an abundance of feed crops here, that would provide economic incentives for more poultry plants to locate in Kansas. But unlike western Kansas, eastern Kansas, has more water and a larger population including unskilled workers desperate for jobs. But Tyson also has a problem – chickens can’t take the heat of being transported in summer more than an hour from where they are grown to where they are slaughtered, or they die before they get there and can’t be used for human food. So Tyson must set up their slaughtering facility within a fifty mile radius of the many CAFO’s that will grow the chickens they kill. They also need ready access to highways, and probably also want to be fairly close to the new transportation hub in Gardner, Kansas for transportation to distant markets too. When you consider all these factors together – you realize the assault eastern Kansas is now vulnerable to. I believe that if we would not want to live near an animal factory, we have a moral obligation to support other citizens in not having to live by them either. We will all be most successful if we work together.

We must address the most imminent threat Tyson presents by working to keep local governments from rezoning the land to industrial and preventing any tax or bond incentives that Tyson is asking for, and if necessary using the courts to make sure that Tyson does not build in Tonganoxie. But we must also address the longer/larger threat that Tyson and other agribusiness giants present to Kansans. It does concern me, that too much of the opposition to Tyson is just about their history and reputation. We need to be careful -- although Tyson is probably one of the most terrible business entities in the US, the negative impacts to our community would still be unacceptably terrible if we were dealing with Perdue, Koch Foods, or another of these monsters.

Did you know that many laws have been passed in recent years that unjustly favor large corporate interests over the well-being and quality of life in communities? Is that the kind of community you'd like to live in? If not, here is what we must also do going forward:

1) Carefully scrutinize political candidates -- who are they likely to have allegiance to -- citizens or special interests that have donated to their campaigns? If the mention of jobs or economic growth is their top concern or they are too cozy with the local Chamber of Commerce...THROW THEM OUT!

2) Educate yourself on the myriad laws that give special protections or privileges to certain entities, while undermining our democracy -- for example the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Law can turn a simple breaking and entering charge (like if an activist sneaks into a CAFO to take pictures to document the terrible conditions there) into a felony terrorism conviction. (Read THIS BOOK to learn more.) Remember when Oprah Winfrey was sued for 20 million dollars just for saying that she would no longer eat hamburgers -- many states have laws that enable similarly unjust lawsuits, which have had a chilling effect on the press. Pressure elected officials to rescind these laws!

3) Finally we must also take personal responsibility by changing what we eat and buy. Animal Factories are the inevitable result of people eating meat, dairy and eggs. We have a growing population of people trying to feed itself on a finite land mass. In Douglas County -- we have seen the destruction of trees to provide more space for cattle grazing, and this is happening worldwide too. I know that many of the people fighting hardest to prevent Tyson from expanding in Kansas are huge proponents of small local farms, and back yard chicken farming. While 100 years ago this was where most American's meat, dairy and eggs came from, there is a reason that system was mostly replaced by confined animal feeding operations (CAFO's like Tyson.) They enable far more animals to be raised in a much smaller space and for less money. Below is a chart showing how per capita consumption of chicken has skyrocketed. This is what is enabling Tyson to ruin the air, water and soil of so many communities while exploiting the most vulnerable among us -- workers without many options and subjecting billions of animals to hell on earth. When I share this information with others, a common response I get is, "But I don't buy Tyson -- I raise my own chickens." But rarely, do people telling me this abstain from eating out at restaurants, church socials and community potlucks....so they are still enabling Tyson and other bad apples.

Keep in mind -- when looking at this table -- The population of the US has more than doubled since 1909, and this chart is showing average consumption per person -- so the ACTUAL numbers of cows, pigs, and chickens being raised for food in this country has actually gone up far more than what you'd think from this graph. On top of that, we have an export market of meat from these animals too -- also not accounted for here. In other words, the environmental impact, and the number of people having to live with horrific animal factories close by, is far far greater, compared to 1909, than you would ever guess just from this data here.

Be sure to look at my page with 150 articles explaining the harms associated with Tyson Click HERE.

Please visit my new pagewhere I've assembled articles that are hard to find via Google -- that show Tyson's history of harms.

You've probably heard by now -- Tyson Foods,one of the largest and most vertically integrated meat-packing companies, has been quietly negotiating with Tonganoxie City and Leavenworth County officials to build a 320 million dollar poultry processing complex just North of the I-70 Kansas Turnpike that runs through Eudora, Ks.

Tonganoxie City Manager Brad Brajkovic, explained to me that he and members of the city council signed non-disclosure agreements back in June, in order to learn more details about what Tyson was proposing. He said this was customary when large employers were looking to come to town and did not want any details released to the public, before they were ready, and that officials make such agreements in order to learn details that enable them to calculate if the economic growth anticipated will offset the city and county's costs for infrastructure and services the new business will require.

However it became apparent to me as we talked, that this arrangement had given Tyson 3 months of exclusive time with officials to make a very strong case for how their new complex would bring jobs and economic benefits -- and to do so with no input from consumer or health activists, social justice advocates, environmentalists, proponents of workers rights, or consulting surrounding property owners/residents who bought and built homes in what was zoned, rural residential -- but under this plan could soon be rezoned as industrial and allow the worst possible uses, that no one wants to live next to, and allowed Tyson to secure agreements from key players in our government to advocateTyson's interests to their constituents -- including plans for providing significant taxpayer funding to assist Tyson's business interests.

These secret discussions appear to have created a situation where all levels of our representative government -- from the Kansas Governor on down, are now supportive of not only allowing Tyson to build a facility that will kill over a million birds each week, but also plan to give Tyson an 80% Tax abatement, issue 500 million dollars of industrial revenue bonds for inducement, provide 1.3 million in loans for gas infrastructure, and 6 million in loans for new water treatment facilities --all at Taxpayer cost. In fact within 24 hours of expiration of the non-disclosure agreements -- when the public first became aware of this proposal, not only do elected officials appear to have made the decision to go ahead with all of this before there was any public discussion, but the City of Tonganoxie's website already hadlinks in placeencouraging local farmers to apply to Tyson directly to become growers of chickens for them. It is more than apparent, that none of these people realize the catastrophic impact Tyson's business practices have had onfarmers,rural towns, employees, animals, waterways, air quality, neighbors and more.

While the Tonganoxie City Manager was very professional and polite to me, and seemed very forthright and open about what was going on, it became clear to me, that he had done little to none of his own research to balance out the sales and schmoozing Tyson had been providing the past three months -- nor to consider the impacts on the entire community -- not just the small subset of citizens likely to reap economic benefit. He was unaware for example the arsenic contaminating most of our nation's rice is traceable to the arsenic Tyson deliberately added to chicken feed for many years to control parasites, and how this has hurt American rice farmers -- as consumers increasingly are refusing to by domestically grown rice, to avoid the arsenic contamination, or that there might even be other really significant harms to his community if Tyson built this complex.

Following that call, I decided that one of the first and most important things I could do, would be to research and assemble an easily ﻿accessible list﻿ of the documented harms from Tyson's business activities. My hope is that every city council member, county commission member, business owner and citizen of this area or anyone concerned about Tyson's plans will go to my page and at least quickly scroll through the dozens of screen shots of headlines I have assembled (each linking directly to an article) that detail Tyson's many fines, and lawsuits related to violations of worker safety, horrific air and water pollution, and devastating impact on the communities it locates its business in.

No amount of economic growth is worth the tragedy that Tyson will bring -- and it is critical that local farmers, anxious to ride Tyson's coattails, be made aware, that farmers who sign contracts with Tyson have ended up in indentured servitude. Some report feeling pressured to treat animals in their care worse than what they felt ok about -- but couldn't get out of doing so, without risking complete economic ruin.

So please join with me in this effort. If each of us, could reach out to even a few elected officials and a few business owners in Leavenworth county and make them aware of the breadth and depth of harms that a Tyson expansion in Ks will bring, we can send Tyson packing! They cannot proceed, without the land being rezoned to heavy industrial, and I doubt they would do this, if the egregious package of taxpayer-subsidies were withdrawn. That is where we can make a difference. I know that many people are planning protests and while I support those, without truly educating the citizenry and pressuring elected officials to see the real and balanced picture of what Tyson would bring -- protests alone will not prevent this tragedy.

Unfortunately it appears that Tonganoxie and Leavenworth County officials have already decided to support this -- before there was any public discussion. Even more shockingly the city has a link right from their page to Tyson encouraging local farmers to be, "growers" for this plant....Here are screen shots from Tyson's site that the city has linked to:

​In other words --- growers make the most money, when they squeeze the most bird flesh from the least feed, and they will be penalized if they fail to adopt the practices that other growers adopt -- even if these things add to the torture of the birds. For example, cutting off food to birds soon to be transported to the slaughter plant, prevents the "wasting" of feed, because there isn't enough time for the food to be converted into added body weight.

It's a race to the bottom in terms of mistreatment of animals, and employees. Once a farmer signs with Tyson he is contractually obligated to use their feed and to return to them, "their" birds. The farmer however is responsible for the mortgage on his buildings, insurance and labor. If he doesn't tow the line with Tyson and agree to handle the animals the way they dictate, he risks complete economic ruin.

My father looks back with shame at how, growing up in the 1930s/40s, it never even occurred to him that there was anything wrong with elderly black women having to give up their seat on the bus to HIM—a fit, young, white male. He was raised to value fairness and justice – but could not see this injustice that his culture taught him to NOT see, which privileged him at the expense of others. Similarly, some people in the early 1800’s, who, worked to end slavery, opposed women’s suffrage. Today we have some who believe racism to be wrong, but support discrimination based on sexual orientation. Culture desensitizes and enables harms by teaching what is," normal, natural or necessary" to the way of life we are accustomed to. So what injustices are we not seeing -- that future generations will?

The United Nations says that animal agriculture contributes more to climate change then transportation. Using prime farmland to raise animals or grow their feed, increases food insecurity for the global poor, removes habitat from free-living animals and grass-fed systems are worse than conventional, because grass-fed animals use more land, grow more slowly, emit more greenhouse gasses and consume more water before finally being killed for meat. In fact 70% of the water in the western half of the United States is being used for animals or growing crops to feed to animals. During California’s drought, watering one’s private vegetable garden in some places was illegal, while it remained permissible to grow alfalfa, which is one of the thirstiest crops, and is grown only to feed animals, all over California – with much of it being shipped to China and to feed Midwestern “grass-fed” cows. Meanwhile an enormous body of science suggests meat, dairy and eggs are unnecessary for health and that populations consuming the most animal protein, have increased incidences of heart disease, kidney disease, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, impotence, osteoporosis and many cancers.

Most people can see that animals have complex emotional capacities and suffer immensely from injury, loss of freedom, having their babies taken from them or sensing they are about to be killed – just like us. Most people agree it is wrong to cause harm to an animal for reasons other than our survival, yet here in America, it is not only unnecessary for us to exploit animals to live, doing so is now placing the human population at risk, via climate change, freshwater depletion, biodiversity loss, and the chronic diseases eating animals promotes.

You can do something to address all of this: GO VEGAN

Click HERE for a printer-friendly version of this essay you can download, print and share.

As my good friends know, I am always on the lookout for new science that may shed light on lifestyle options that may be helpful for preventing or reversing various common health issues-- and then sharing this information with those I think might have an interest in it. I had just been privately emailing a new study that I found, suggesting reversal of Hashimoto's Disease might be possible, to several friends when it occurred to me that with thyroid disease as prevalent as it is -- this one might be worth sharing on my blog and in my newsletter -- as thyroid disorders are becoming extremely common.

First a little background. Hypothyroidism is what results when the body has too little thyroid hormone, and is usually evidenced by an increase in the blood TSH levels. Hyperthyroidism is the result of too much thyroid hormone and is associated with depression or lowering of the TSH. Low thyroid or the "hypo" form is far more common and in the US is most often caused by an autoimmune disease called Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. Graves Disease is also an autoimmune thyroid disease, but it results in an overactive thyroid and too much thyroid hormone.

There has been evidence for some time, that both Hashimotos and Graves, may be triggered and even maintained by the consumption of gluten, in genetically susceptible people. There is also evidence that about 2/3 of Americans probably carry the genes to become gluten intolerant, that the incidence of gluten intolerance is increasing, and that many people who would benefit from a gluten-free diet, are negative by every single currently used diagnostic test for gluten intolerance and Celiac Disease.

​However, it is likely that once enough damage has been done to the thyroid as a result of exposure to gluten, simply going gluten free may not be enough to enable the thyroid to function optimally again. However complete elimination of gluten would still be important, because there is evidence that the risk of developing additional autoimmune diseases, and other health problems increases over time with the continued exposure to gluten. If you want to learn more about science on this issue, the folks down in Jackson Mississippi recorded and posted a talk I gave there on this subject awhile back. Click on the image of me giving this talk below to watch that video.

So now I'd like to share with you an interesting study that might suggest some additional possibilities for healing thyroid dysfunction. The study was published earlier this year in the International Journal of Endocrinology. Clicking on the image below will take you directly to the study, in case you would like to read it for yourself.

This study basically took people with diagnosed but very early Hashimoto's Disease (and one person with Graves Disease) and had them take Inositol and selenium for six months. They demonstrated significant normalization of TSH in this population, which translated into noticeable improvements in well-being.

If someone is already taking thyroid replacement for hypothyroidism and tries this protocol, they would probably want to carefully monitor thyroid function -- and taper medications as necessary, or else they could experience hyperthyroid symptoms and/or have the medication interfere with the body's attempts to heal and normalize the endocrine system. I will add, I am not a medical doctor, and am sharing this information for educational purposes only. If you are interested in trying this you should consult your appropriate health-care provider. : )

The Peaceful Revolution

In 1942 President FDR – husband to social justice hero Eleanor Roosevelt, signed an executive order that forcefully removed law-abiding Japanese-Americans from their homes and put them in prison camps. There was little outcry. In the 1970s, our government, along with medical doctors forced African American men to endure late stage syphilis just to see what would happen. Few with knowledge of this objected. American history began with violently removing the native people. Ardent abolitionists of the 1800’s opposed giving women the right to vote, and today there are caring people who staunchly support civil rights for people of color but oppose marriage equality for LGBTQ identifying individuals. In the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, we learn that a large American hospital in the 1950’s injected cancer cells into hundreds of patients without consent, and the only people to object were three Jewish doctors – whose views were marginalized as being, “overly sensitive,” due to the Holocaust having just happened. History is full of similar examples prompting Albert Einstein to say, “The world is a dangerous place not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”

One of the most egregious examples of the human capacity to look away and disregard injustice against others is the Holocaust, which prompted us to ask, “how did so many, “normal” people allow such a thing to happen?” The classic experiment by Stanley Milgram sought to answer this, and suggested that over half of us will go along with things that we know harm others if environmental conditions are right, saying, “Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process." However, some cultures (and by implication their cultural practices) appear to be less vulnerable to this phenomenon. So it’s worth asking ourselves...What can we do, to promote compassion and foster conditions that make individuals less likely to ignore injustice, and more able to put ourselves in the position of others so that we won’t, “look on and do nothing” when injustice is threatening someone else?

While increasingly the main vote we have is how we spend our dollars, the power of veganism is not due to its boycott of violently produced consumer goods. Rather it is the ripple effect that results each time one of us stands firmly in solidarity with justice, nonviolence and compassion. This inspires those around us to consider their own choice of where to stand. Every major human caused tragedy that has ever plagued the world, was enabled to occur for one main reason: Human beings have the capacity to ignore injustice happening to those we have been taught to, “otherize.” Throughout human history, no group has been more victimized and exploited by this phenomenon than the non-human beings that we eat, hunt, experiment on and use for our entertainment. With BILLIONS of thinking feeling, “others” tortured and killed every year.​By embracing a vegan ethic, three times a day, we participate in an activity that seeks to prevent our complicity in violence and exploitation against the vulnerable, and actually changes brains in ways likely to create more peace and justice in the world. (According to neuroscience research, our thoughts and actions alter brain structure in ways that make it more likely we will have more thoughts and engage in more actions along the same lines.) The example of how we live each day – by modeling a conviction to practice non-violence and compassion for the most vulnerable in our diet, and in what we buy and wear, may be the single most powerful action any of us can take at this time in history. Furthermore, if those in power are successful in drilling more, and thwarting US actions to reduce worldwide carbon emissions, by becoming vegan, we reduce our own carbon and water footprint enormously – but even more important the example we set has a huge ripple effect that could be powerful!

We don’t know what the next few years will bring, that’s why now, more than ever before, becoming vegan matters. Please join this peaceful revolution.

Click HERE for a downloadable PDF of this essay that you can print and share with others.